Page 435 (1/2)

That how she was as handsome a lady,

ma'am, as lived, no matter wheres, and a busk liketo what they was told, ma'am, it was her son by a former

husband as was took into the Government; and a General he had been, and

arain and victory crowned, if all you heard was to

be believed

That hoas reported that Mr Merdle's words had been,

that if they could have made it worth his while to take the whole

Government he would have took it without a profit, but that take it he

could not and stand a loss That hoas not to be expected, ht say and utter

no falsehood, paved with gold; but that hoas ot up to make it worth his while;

for it was such and only such that knowed the heighth to which the bread

and butchers' meat had rose, and it was such and only such that both

could and would bring that heighth down

So rife and potent was the fever in Bleeding Heart Yard, that Mr

Pancks's rent-days caused no interval in the patients The disease took

the singular for the infected to find

an unfathoic naer 'Pay up!

Coot it, Mr Pancks,' Defaulter would reply 'I tell you the

truth, sir, when I say I haven't got so le sixpence of it

to bless myself with'

'This won't do, you know,' Mr Pancks would retort 'You don't expect it

will do; do you?' Defaulter would ad no such expectation

'My proprietor isn't going to stand this, you know,' Mr Pancks would

proceed 'He don't send me here for this Pay up! Come!'

The Defaulter would entleman whose name is in everybody's lad to do it'

Dialogues on the rent-question usually took place at the house-doors

or in the entries, and in the presence of several deeply interested

Bleeding Hearts They always received a reference of this kind with a

low ; and the Defaulter,

however black and disco it

'If I was Mr Merdle, sir, you wouldn't have cause to complain of me

then No, believe me!' the Defaulter would proceed with a shake of the

head 'I'd pay up so quick then, Mr Pancks, that you shouldn't have to

askthat it was i fairer, and that this was the next thing to paying the

as he booked the case, 'Well!

You'll have the broker in, and be turned out; that's what'll happen to

you It's no use talking to me about Mr Merdle You are not Mr Merdle,

any more than I am'

'No, sir,' the Defaulter would reply 'I only wish you were hi with great feeling,

'Only wish you were him, sir'

'You'd be easier with us if you were Mr Merdle, sir,' the Defaulter

would go on with rising spirits, 'and it would be better for all

parties Better for our sakes, and better for yours, too You wouldn't

have to worry no one, then, sir You wouldn't have to worry us, and you

wouldn't have to worry yourself You'd be easier in your own mind, sir,

and you'd leave others easier, too, you would, if you were Mr Merdle'

Mr Pancks, in whom these impersonal compliments produced an irresistible

sheepishness, never rallied after such a charge He could only bite

his nails and puff away to the next Defaulter The responsive Bleeding

Hearts would then gather round the Defaulter whoant rureat co the amount of Mr Merdle's ready money

From one of the many such defeats of one offinished his day's collection, repaired with his note-book

under his arm to Mrs Plornish's corner Mr Pancks's object was not

professional, but social He had had a trying day, and wanted a little

brightening By this ti often looked in upon them at similar seasons, and borne

his part in recollections of Miss Dorrit

Mrs Plornish's shop-parlour had been decorated under her own eye, and

presented, on the side towards the shop, a little fiction in which Mrs

Plornish unspeakably rejoiced This poetical heightening of the parlour

consisted in the wall being painted to represent the exterior of a

thatched cottage; the artist having introduced (in as effective a hly disproportionate dimensions)

the real door andThewith great luxuriance on this rustic dwelling,

while a quantity of dense sood

cheer within, and also, perhaps, that it had not been lately swept

A faithful dog was represented as flying at the legs of the friendly

visitor, froeon-house, enveloped in a

cloud of pigeons, arose fro On the door (when

it was shut), appeared the se

the inscription, Happy Cottage, T and M Plornish; the partnership

expressing ination e

char to her that Plornish had a habit

of leaning against it as he seon-house and all the pigeons, when his back

sed up the dwelling, when his hands in his pockets uprooted the

blooarden and laid waste the adjacent country To Mrs Plornish, it

was still a e, a most wonderful deception; and

it made no difference that Mr Plornish's eye was soable bed-room in the thatch To come out into the shop

after it was shut, and hear her father sing a song inside this cottage,

was a perfect Pastoral to Mrs Plornish, the Golden Age revived And

truly if that famous period had been revived, or had ever been at all,

it may be doubted whether it would have produced hters than the poor wo bell at the shop-door, Mrs Plornish

cauessed it was

you, Mr Pancks,' said she, 'for it's quite your regular night; ain't it?

Here's father, you see, co shop well? Father's more pleased to

see you than if you was a custoossip; and

when it turns upon Miss Dorrit, he loves it all the more You never

heard father in such voice as he is at present,' said Mrs Plornish, her

own voice quavering, she was so proud and pleased 'He gave us Strephon

last night to that degree that Plornish gets up and makes him this

speech across the table "John Edward Nandy," says Plornish to father,

"I never heard you coht" An't it gratifying, Mr Pancks, though; really?'

Mr Pancks, who had snorted at the old man in his friendliest manner,

replied in the affirmative, and casually asked whether that lively Altro

chap had coh he had

gone to the West-End with some work, and had said he should be back

by tea-tie,

where he encountered the elder Master Plornish just cohtly, on the educational

proceedings of the day, he found that the e text and the letter M, had been set the copy 'Merdle,

Millions'

'And how are you getting on, Mrs Plornish,' said Pancks, 'since we're

millions?'

'Very steady, indeed, sir,' returned Mrs Plornish 'Father, dear, would

you go into the shop and tidy thea little bit before tea, your

taste being so beautiful?'

John Edward Nandy trotted away, hter's request Mrs Plornish, as always inpecuniary affairs before the old gentleht rouse his spirit and induce him to run away to

the workhouse, was thus left free to be confidential with Mr Pancks

'It's quite true that the business is very steady indeed,' said Mrs

Plornish, lowering her voice; 'and has a excellent connection The only

thing that stands in its way, sir, is the Credit'

This drawback, rather severely felt by ed in

co Heart Yard,

was a large stu-block in Mrs Plornish's trade When Mr Dorrit had

established her in the business, the Bleeding Hearts had shown an amount

of emotion and a determination to support her in it, that did honour to

hus as one

who had long been a reat feeling, to deal with Mrs Plornish, coe on no other establishone out of their way to purchase little

luxuries in the grocery and butter line to which they were unaccusto to one another, that if they did stretch a point, was it not for

a neighbour and a friend, and for whoht a point to be stretched if

not for such? So stimulated, the business was extrereatest celerity In short, if the

Bleeding Hearts had but paid, the undertaking would have been a complete

success; whereas, by reason of their exclusively confining the, the profits actually realised had not yet begun to appear in the

books

Mr Pancks washis hair

up in the contemplation of this state of accounts, when old Mr Nandy,

re-entering the cottage with an air of e behaviour of Mr Baptist, who see that had scared hih the , then saw Mr Baptist, pale and agitated, go

through the following extraordinary perfor at the top of the steps leading down into the Yard, and peeping

up and down the street with his head cautiously thrust out close to the

side of the shop-door After very anxious scrutiny, he came out of

his retreat, and went briskly down the street as if he were going away

altogether; then, suddenly turned about, and went, at the saone no further up the street

than he had gone dohen he crossed the road and disappeared The

object of this lastthe

shop with a sudden twist, froain, explained that he

had made a wide and obscure circuit round to the other, or Doyce and

Clennah the Yard and bolted in

He was out of breath by that tiht well be, and his heart

seemed to jerk faster than the little shop-bell, as it quivered and

jingled behind hi of the door

'Hallo, old chap!' said Mr Pancks 'Altro, old boy! What's the lish now almost as well

as Mr Pancks himself, and could speak it very well too Nevertheless,

Mrs Plornish, with a pardonable vanity in that accomplishment of hers

which made her all but Italian, stepped in as interpreter

'E ask know,' said Mrs Plornish, 'What go wrong?'

'Coe, Padrona,' returned Mr Baptist,

ireat stealthiness to his flurried back-handed shake of his

right forefinger 'Come there!'

Mrs Plornish was proud of the title Padrona, which she regarded as

signifying: not so ue She immediately complied with Mr Baptist's request, and

they all went into the cottage

'E ope you no fright,' said Mrs Plornish then, interpreting Mr Pancks

in a neith her usual fertility of resource 'What appen? Peaka

Padrona!'

'I have seen some one,' returned Baptist 'I have rincontrato him'

'Im? Oo him?' asked Mrs Plornish

'A bad man A baddest ain' 'Ow you know him bad?' asked Mrs Plornish

'It does not matter, Padrona I know it too well'

''E see you?' asked Mrs Plornish

'No I hope not I believe not'

'He says,' Mrs Plornish then interpreted, addressing her father and

Pancks with mild condescension, 'that he has met a bad man, but he hopes

the badto

the Italian language, 'why ope bad ner whom she so

considerately protected, 'do not ask, I pray Once again I say it

matters not I have fear of this man I do not wish to see hih, reeable to him, and so put his usual liveliness to

the rout, that Mrs Plornish forbore to press hi for some time on the hob But she was not the

less surprised and curious for asking no more questions; neither was

Mr Pancks, whose expressive breathing had been labouring hard since the

entrance of the littleup a steep incline Maggy, now better dressed than of yore,

though still faithful to the round froaping features were not diminished in breadth by the untimely

suppression of the subject However, no ht on all sides: by noPlornishes, who partook of the evening

the bread and butter were rendered almost superfluous by the painful

probability of the worst ofthean to chirp a little;

but never stirred from the seat he had taken behind the door and close

to the , though it was not his usual place As often as the little

bell rang, he started and peeped out secretly, with the end of the

little curtain in his hand and the rest before his face; evidently not

at all satisfied but that the s and turnings, with the certainty of a terrible bloodhound

The entrance, at various tiave Mr Baptist just enough of this employment to keep the

attention of the company fixed upon him Tea was over, and the children

were abed, and Mrs Plornish was feeling her way to the dutiful proposal

that her father should favour theain,

and Mr Clenna late over his books and letters; for the

waiting-rooed his time sorely

Over and above that, he was depressed and made uneasy by the late

occurrence at his mother's He looked worn and solitary He felt so,

too; but, nevertheless, was returning hoive theence that he had received

another letter froe which drew off the general

attention froround

is of her Little

Mother equally at her ears, nose, mouth, and eyes, but that the last

were obstructed by tears She was particularly delighted when Clennam

assured her that there were hospitals, and very kindly conducted

hospitals, in Ro specially remembered in the letter Everybody was pleased and